St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-10-29

Who would want to confront his God
against whom we have all done meaner
things than anybody has ever done against
us, carrying old grudges? How can we
expect His forgiveness for the greater
when we are not willing to forgive
others the less? Napoleon was encour-
aged to undertake the crossing of the
Alps because Charlemagne had pre-
viously crossed them. And all this
rugged path Of forgiveness bears the
bleeding footsteps of Him who con-
uuered through suffering, and we ought
to be willing to follow. On the
night of our departure from this life
into the next. our one plea Will
have to be for mercy, and 1t will
have to be offered in the presence of Him
who has said "If you forgive not men
their trespasses neither will your Heav-
emily Father forgive your trespasses."
What sorry plight if we stand there
hating this one, and hating that one, and
wishing this one damage, and wishing
some one else a calamity, and we our
selves needing forgiveness for ten thou
sand times ten thousand obliquities of
heart and life. When our last
| hour comes we want it to find
US all right Hardly anything af-
| fects me so much in the uncovering of
! ancient Pompeii as the account of the
| soldier who, after the city had for many
/ centuries been covered with the ashes
| and scori2 of Vesuvius, was found
standing in his place on guard, hand on
| spear and helmet on head, Others fled
at the awful encouragement, but the eX-
plorer, seventeen hundred years after,
found the body of that brave fellow in
right position. And it will be a grand
thing if, when our last moment comes,
we are found in right position toward the
| world, as well as in right position toward
God, on guard and unatfrighted by the
ashes from the mountain of death. | do
not suppose that | am any more of a
coward than most people, but | declare
to YOU that would not dare to sleep to-
night if there were any being in all the
earth with whom | would not gladly
shake hand, lest, during the night hours,
my spirit dismissed to other realms, |
should, because of my unforgiving spirit,
be denied divine forgiveness.
But says some woman, there is
horrid creature that has so injured me
that rather than make up with her
would die first" Well, sister, you may
take your choice-for one or the other it
will be-your complete pardon of her or
Gods eternal Punishment of you. But
says some man, that fellow who cheated
me out of those goods, or damaged my
business credit, or started that lie about
me in the newspapers, or by his per-
tidy broke up my domestic happiness,
forgive him l cannot, forgive him
l will not" Well, brother, take your
choice. You will never be at peace with
God till you are at peace with man.
Feeling as you now do, you would not
get SO near the harbor of Heaven as to
see the lightship. Better leave that man
with the God who said: ''Vengeance is
mine, will repay" You may say: II
will make him sweat for that yet, | will
make him squirm, | mean to pursue him
to the death" but you are damaging your
self more than you damage him and
you are making Heaven for your own
soul an impossibility. If he will not be
reconciled to you, be reconciled to him.
In five or six hours it will be shutdown.
The dahlias will bloom against the west
ern sky. Somewhere between this and
that take shovel and bury the old quar-
rel at least six feet deep. Let not the
sun 60 down upon your wrath
But" you say, Il have more than, Ycan |
bear; too much is put upon me and am
not to blame if | am somewhat revenge |
full and unrelenting" Then l think |
of the little child at the moving of some
goods from a store. The father was
putting some rolls of goods on the childs |
arm, package after package, and some |
one said That child is being overloaded |
and so much ought not to be put upon |
her" when the child responded: Father |
knows how much can carry and God, |
our Father, will not allow too much i'm
position on His children. In the day of |
eternity it will be found you had not one |
annoyance too many, not one exaspera-
ton too many, not one outrage too many. !
Your Heavenly Father knows how much /
you can carry.
Again: We ought not to allow the
passage of the sunset hour before the
dismissal of all our atfrOnts, because
we may associate the sublimest action of
the soul with the sublimest spectacle in
nature. 1t is most delightsome thing
to have our personal experiences allied
with certain objects. There is a tree or
river bank where God first answered
your prayer. You will never pass that
place or think of that place without
thinking of the glorious communion.
There was some gate, or some
room, or some garden walk, where
you were affianced with the companion
who has been your chief Joy in life. You
never speak of that place but with
smile. Some of you have pleasant mem
ories connected with the evening star, or
he moon in its first quarter, or with the
sunrise, because you saw it just as you
we're arriving at harbor after tempestu-
BUS voyage Forever and forever, 0
nearer, associate the sunset with your
out-and-out, unlimited
of all hatreds and forgive
ness of all foes. I admit it is the most
difficult of all graces to practice, and at
he start you may make complete
allure, but keep on in the attempt to
practice it. Shakespeare wrote ten plays
before he reached Hamlet" and seven
cen plays before he reached Merchant
If Venice" and twenty-eight before he
cached Macbeth" And gradually
Tou will come from the easier
traces to the most difficult. Be-
ide that, it is not matter
If personal determination so much as
he laying hold of the almighty arm of
Tod, who will help Us to do anything we
ought to do. Remember that in all
PERSONAL controversies the one least
o blame will have to take the first